Thursday, August 17, 2006

More on Guerin

3 Comments:

Verity said...

Can you imagine the hell of being married to Orla Guerrin?

She would come back late from the supermarket, pause in the doorway and, half turning, gesture back down the street and say to her husband: "They shopped in their thousands. Pushing trolleys filled with essential food and toiletry items down aisles stocked with merchandise for families. Children cried, begging for sweeties. The checkout lines were long, but they waited patiently for their turn, loyalty cards in hand."

They go to watch a movie, and as they walk to the carpark, Orla gestures back to the cinema and says, "They watched in their hundreds. They might have been glued to their seats from the intensity of their attention. Some ate tubs of the popcorn the local population sells at the concession stand in the lobby. They ordered their soft drinks and waited patiently for their change. There were men and women, some with babies in their arms. There were groups of girls and groups of boys and they eyed one another with grim suspicion, as though from across the Gaza Strip."

'Sir - Vicki Woods (Comment, August 12) suggests that I used the word "massacre" to describe what happened at Qana. I took great care not to use the word, because the evidence I was able to gather that morning did not support such a claim. I have seen massacres in Rwanda and other parts of the world, and have some idea of what is involved.

'Vicki Woods adds: "Some people insist it was a carefully staged Hizbollah photo-op, not a massacre. I don't know."

'The Israeli Defence Force acknowledged that it had carried out the bombing. The IDF - as I reported on BBC News that night - said Hizbollah had been firing rockets from the area. It even produced video to support its case.

'Fergal Keane, BBC News, London W12'

Oh, weepy, weepy, weepy for not being able to bring himself to say - sob - massacre! There was no "massacre", Fergal Keene, at Qana, because despite your heroes, Hezbollah's, cruelty towards their own, the Israelis littered the civilian areas where Hezbollah were hiding their rockets warning residents to save their lives and get out as bombing was about to commence.

So you were quite right not to use the word! Now you want credit for it?